bronchitis

Etymology

It is borrowed from New Latin bronchitis,^{[2][3][4][5][6]} formed in New Latin from bronchia (“the bronchial tubes”) or bronchus (“a branch of the windpipe”) and the suffix -itis (“inflammation”), from Ancient Greek -ῖτις (-îtis).^{[2][5][7][8][6]} It was first used by C. Badham in his “Observations on the Inflammatory Affections of the Mucous Membrane of the Bronchiae” (1808);^[2][8] Etymonline and Klein call him Charles Bedham.^[5][6] The Latin forms come from Ancient Greek βρόγχια (brónkhia, “the branches of the windpipe”) and βρόγχος (brónkhos, “windpipe, throat”).^[2][5][6][9] Etymonline calls the Greek word of unknown origin,^[5] while Klein relates it, probably, to βρόχθος (brókhthos, “throat”) and βράγχιον (bránkhion, “gill”), and through a root Proto-Indo-European *gʷer- (“to devour”) to craw and voracious.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Inflammation of the mucous membrane of the bronchial tubes: the term dates from Badham's book of 1808,^[2][8][5] and the OED's first English quotation is from 1814, in J. Burns's Principles of Midwifery.^[2] Dictionary.com dates the word 1812.^[3]

Semantic evolution

According to Klein, the word was brought into general medical use by P. Frank in his “Interpretationes Clinicae” (1812).^[6] The meaning has stayed close to the coinage, an acute or chronic inflammation of the bronchial tubes,^[8][10] but Merriam-Webster Unabridged also extends it to several diseases of people or animals in which such inflammation is the main feature.^[8]

Timeline

• 1808 – first used by C. Badham for inflammation of the bronchial membrane.^[2][8][5]
• 1812 – brought into medical use by P. Frank.^[6]
• 1814 – inflammation of the bronchial mucous membrane, in J. Burns's Principles of Midwifery.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. Acute or chronic inflammation of the bronchial tubes, causing coughing and difficulty in breathing: She was off work for a fortnight with bronchitis.^{[11][8][10][2]}
2. Any of several diseases of humans or animals marked by such inflammation.^[8]

Word family

• bronchitic

Related words

• bronchus
• bronchia
• bronchial
• -itis

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
4. ^ Gove, Philip Babcock, ed. (1961), Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam
5. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c d e f g Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
9. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
10. ^ a b Stedman's Medical Dictionary, Baltimore: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins
11. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins